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Benin

The eight Commissioners of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) were sworn in on 9 May 2017. In accordance with Article 28 of the UEMOA Treaty, the swearing-in ceremony took place at the UEMOA Court of Justice in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The Commission is the Union’s executive body in charge of ensuring the proper functioning of the Union. It is composed of eight members, called Commissioners, who are nationals of UEMOA Member States. Three former Commissioners have been reappointed. Read on

The Belgian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Development Cooperation Alexander De Croo travelled to Benin and Senegal with two Belgian celebrities working with the United Nations on issues related to the rights of women and children. Their working visit was part of the “She Decides” initiative - led by Belgium, Denmark, The Netherlands and Sweden - which focuses on improving the rights of young girls and women, especially on sexual and reproductive health. Read on

Of the millions of children who do not complete elementary school in West Africa each year, one third suffer from a disability. Their condition means they are confronted with many barriers to education. As part of its inclusive education programme, Handicap International seeks to remove the many barriers to the education of 170 000 children with disabilities in nine West African countries. Read on

Africans travelling to Benin will no longer require a visa. Benin joined a continent-wide campaign aimed at achieving the free movement of people and open visas across Africa. Eight West African countries — Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Mali and Togo — are counted as some of the most visa-open countries in Africa. Read on

An ambitious flagship project, the long-awaited construction of a trans-African gas pipeline connecting Nigeria via Morocco to Europe, might finally advance. The project was officially announced in December 2016 during a visit of King Mohammed VI to Nigeria. The 4 000 km pipeline will run along the Gulf of Guinea countries and will help create industrial hubs, and thereby will also boost regional economic integration beyond the energy sector. Read on

According to the 2016 Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG), governance in Africa has overall slightly improved over the past decade but the security situation has clearly become worse: two out of three Africans live in a country where safety and the rule of law deteriorated over the past ten years. This is particularly the case in Guinea-Bissau, Nigeria and Chad. Overall, the ECOWAS area is the second best-performing African region, after southern Africa, having recorded the largest increase in its average score (52.4) for overall governance. Read on

The Republic of Benin celebrated its 56th year of Independence on 1 August. The national celebrations offered an opportunity for the newly elected president, Patrice Talon, who has been in power since 6 April 2016, to reaffirm his electoral commitments: institutional reform, economic recovery and an new dynamic overall to boost democracy in the country. President Talon is notably planning to organise a referendum to decide on the introduction of a single presidential mandate in the Constitution. Read on

The Sahel and West Africa Club Secretariat (SWAC/OECD) was invited to a workshop of the West Africa Division’s Governance Working Group organised by the Swiss Co-operation Office in Mali on 28 July in Bamako. This provided an opportunity to share SWAC’s experiences and the results of its work on cross-border co-operation in West Africa. Read on

From 7 to 8 June, ECOWAS and the World Bank organised a workshop in Accra as part of the Improved and Facilitated Trade in West Africa project. Representatives of UEMOA and the European Union also took part in the discussions. The workshop revolved around several issues related to the easing of trade in the maid trade corridors in the region, especially those that connect landlocked countries (Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger) to coastal countries (Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana). Read on

A native of Pobè in Benin, Marcel Alain de Souza took office as the new President of the ECOWAS Commission on 8 April, succeeding Kadré Désiré Ouédraogo of Burkina Faso. Benin was designated to chair the Commission at the Conference of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS on 17 December 2015. Read on